Advice for RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins

Research in Motion co-founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out as co-CEOs and Thorsten Heins is in. But has the leadership track at the company really changed? In his first interviews with media, Heins said he was going to stay the course set by the old BlackBerry bosses. That may surprise some, given the company’s tumultuous year. We asked some of our friends in the Canadian technology and mobility scene to play armchair CEO and give their advice to Heins. Click through the slideshow to see what they had to say.

By Brian Jackson

Farhan Thawar, VP of Engineering, Xtreme Labs

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Simplify the product line (fewer models, and standardize the specs and screen resolutions). Make the development tools for applications dead-easy and work with partners to get access to pre-release devices, SDKs, and product release schedules.”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “Focus on enterprise, this is RIMs stronghold and RIM has the best opportunity to maintain leadership here in security and enterprise connectivity. Don’t make it easy for investment bankers to get rid of their BlackBerries.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “Of course! RIM is profitable, debt-free and has cash in the bank. The opportunity is for RIM to grow as fast or faster than the industry averages, which have been tougher to match these last few years.”

Michael O’Connor Clarke, vice-president, Media Profile

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Smother 3rd-party developers with love. It’s clear no smartphone can be an island these days. iPhone & Android are winning, in part, because the app dev community is so strong. RIM needs to learn how to make developers happy, how to get a huge, creative ecosystem of developers writing fantastic apps for Blackberry 10.”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “Go fully open source. They’ve already made some nods in this direction with the PlayBook OS and have opened certain elements through their SDKs. Bite the bullet and go fully open. Let developers hack and improve every aspect of the OS.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “Yes, but only in a radically altered form. The management and board changes are step one.”

Kunal Gupta, CEO, Polar Mobile

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “I think what remains to be seen is what are RIM’S plans or strategies from a marketing perspective, from a building a developer ecosystem perspective. The reality is people who are on RIM’s platform today, ourselves included- we’re one of the largest developers for BlackBerry, definitely in Canada – are fine, they’re making money, they’re driving apps, and getting users and traffic. The question is how is RIM going to attract people who are not in the ecosystem to join the ecosystem?”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “I think that’s what they need to do to figure out how to grow the developer ecosystem, and with that you’ll get more apps, and more content and more media, and with that you’ll get more device sales.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “I think it’s a profitable company that’s making a lot of money. It’s not growing at the same rate that its competitors are growing at, but I think it is surviving on its own.”

Roberta Fox, president, Fox Group Consulting

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Focus on getting updates for product releases and make sure, no matter what it takes to meet the committed dates. Then brag about it!”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “Our customers are telling us RIM should continue to develop secure, reliable communications solutions for the enterprise business customer segment for its products, but bring some of the consumer-like apps that enhance business productivity while maintaining the enterprise class security and management tools.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “We believe that RIM can survive on its own as long as they adapt quickly from the executive changes, get their new products out when they promise, develop new products and solutions with the same quality they have in the past, and learn how to communicate and market to us as business customers in spite of the fast paced competitive forces.”

Brian Bourne, President, CMS Consulting

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Please delay any product launch rather than release any more half finished products that require users to constantly update them after acquisition. Please don’t launch anything until it’s truly unique, amazing and ready for mass consumption. As for overall strategy and priorities, I’d focus on extending the BES platform to include non-RIM devices. I think this is a great way for RIM to keep a strong corporate foot hold until it can win back the consumer.”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “Companies should always focus on core competence before stretching. For RIM, this is the corporate world, if they can help companies deal with managing all devices, they can stay top of mind until they can figure out the consumer space.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “Why not? They own some critical patents, and still have the best device management platform.”

Krista Napier, senior mobility analyst, IDC Canada

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Simplifying the user experience of its products for greater mass market appeal, and ensuring its network operations availability and reliability should remain top priorities (especially given the outages from last Fall).”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “On the media tablet side of things, which is a young market where many businesses are still evaluating which tablets to support, and need help determining how do use the devices and which apps to use, RIM could be in a position to help them with this transition.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “RIM probably has one year left to demonstrate it can turn itself around. I think the changes announced today provide some hope, but RIM and its leaders have to make some positive changes in 2012. Aside from a buy-out, licensing patents could be a reality for the company if they find they can’t turn things around.”

Andrew Peek, CEO, Rocketr

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Return to the strengths, similar to how Steve Jobs came back to Apple and cut back down to the very core. RIM, believe it or not, is not a hardware company at its heart, it is not a form factor company at its heart. It does amazing data encryption and data transfer services. That’s what is keeping it in business right now.”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “Keep the PlayBook in the market, invest in maybe one mobile one and work on your hardware competency… What ways can you invest in those younger software companies in helping them sell to those larger enterprise companies? Don’t stop looking for ways to extend the core competencies.”

MStuart Crawford, CEO, Ulistic

“RIM was the pioneer in the smartphone industry. Similar to the other leading firms in the technology’s past. Novell broke ground in networking, Microsoft brought us Windows and RIM brought us mobility. However, as the incumbent or pioneer, new players are always gunning for you. In the mobile space, Apple brought us a device that we can get email, make calls and listen to our entire music library. Apple made their phones “trendy” while RIM focused on “in my opinion” practicality. I like practical, security and efficiencies loses when trends and the cool factor has an impact. I am an Apple user now on almost everything I use today. My business today runs on a marriage of Apple and Microsoft solutions. Why? It works and I understand the risks perhaps, but the ease of use and functionality outweigh the associated risks.”

Alex Sakiz, CEO, Gamerizon

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Fight the war on your turf, not your opponent’s turf: Your phones are not sexy and not particularly cool and focus on an set of attributes that is out of fashion. So what! Turn that into an advantage. In case you haven’t seen it, or if you’ve forgotten about it, take a look at the VW ad campaign of the 60’s that made the “laughable” and “ugly” Beetle famous in the US.”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “hire a CMO who is “bold” enough to stretch the limit. A sure sign you’re on the right track will be when you are somewhat uncomfortable with your ad campaign. If you’re not, it means you’re not pushing it far enough and it won’t make an impact.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “It actually probably cannot survive any other way.”

Mark Jeftovic, CEO, Easy DNS

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Ignore the press, ignore the opinions of the armchair experts, ignore the competition. Worry about serving your customers. What do they need and what they want from RIM? Don’t worry about what Apple or Google is doing. Worry about what RIM customers are thinking and strive to deliver value to the RIM user base.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “Yes. History is full of tech companies who were discounted as “finished” and then staged remarkable comebacks. IBM, Apple. RIM?”

What advice do you have for Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of Research in Motion? “Two things: In his interviews today, Mr. Heins trumpets RIM’s 75 million customers worldwide. That’s a terrific accomplishment. But does RIM really know what its customers want? I would suggest that Mr. Heins speak to them, and make sure that RIM knows what its loyal customers are really looking for from the company – then craft the company’s direction accordingly. In addition, nothing aggravates a loyal customer like a provider that constantly over-promises and under-delivers. RIM must align what it says with what it does, to preserve its credibility with both current and prospective customers.”

What direction would you like to see the company go in now? “I have two teen-aged children. Two years ago, they and their friends all wanted Blackberries. Now they all want iPhones. I was intrigued by Matt Gurney’s take in the National Post, essentially suggesting that RIM play to its strength – the business user – rather than endlessly chasing its competitors in the consumer market that those competitors themselves are shaping.”

Can RIM survive on its own? “Yes, I think it can. But to do so it will need to identify what its customers want and focus on providing them with on time, first-class, quality devices that meet customer needs. (Disclosure – I have been a Blackberry user since 2005 – and have always been happy to support a great Canadian company. I hope RIM makes it possible for this to continue).”